Grand Rounds June

Posted: Saturday, June 7, 2008 8:56 am

Orlando Heart Center Celebrates 40h Anniversary

Founded in 1968 by Dr. Jonathan O. Partain, Orlando Heart Center is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Committed to excellence, Orlando Heart Center has grown to have 23 board-certified cardiologists and is one of the largest and most well established cardiology practices in Central Florida.
On May 16, 2008 Orlando Heart Center celebrated the practice and its history at the Country Club of Orlando with family and many friends of the practice. It was a wonderful night of food, dancing, and reminiscence. Orlando Heart Center looks forward to a wonderful future continuing the delivery of high-quality and cost-effective individualized care to the Central Florida community.


Dr. Nabil Hilwa Now Seeing Patients in Southwest Orlando

ORLANDO — Dr. Nabil Hilwa, and Urology Central of Florida, are pleased to announce they are now seeing patients in an office adjacent to Dr. P. Phillips Hospital in southwest Orlando. Dr. Hilwa is joined by Troy Edwards, MD and Jacqueline Williams, MD. The group treats a variety of urological disorders, including laparoscopic cryosurgery and nephrectomy.


Wellness Center Manager Receives Children’s Empowerment Award

Sandra Turner, manager of the LRMC Wellness Center, will receive a Children’s Empowerment Award May 17 as part of the Kids’ Day America/International celebration in recognition of her involvement with a children’s fitness and nutrition program presented to grade-school-age kids in Lake County.

“Through her work at the LRMC Wellness Center, Sandra has made an invaluable contribution to children throughout the area,” says Lee Huntley, Central Florida Health Alliance President and CEO. “We’re very pleased with the work she’s done and proud of the well-deserved recognition she’s receiving.”

The program, known as T.U.F.F. Kids (Teaching Us Fitness is Fun), began after a member of the Wellness Center expressed a concern about the lack of physical education classes available to his son. Turner says the Wellness Center began offering kids programs, but didn’t have much success getting people to bring their children to the facility.

Turner’s response? “If they’re not going to come to us, we’ll go to them!”

She brought together a team including Mike Kehoe, PhD, from the University of Central Florida’s Sports and Fitness Department, and Jim Hill from Lake County Schools Food Services Division, to come up with a way to take fitness to the schools. The T.U.F.F. Kids program was the result of their efforts.

T.U.F.F. Kids is a six-week fitness and nutrition intervention program based on National Heart Lung and Blood Institute’s CATCH Kids program for elementary school children. An overall mindset of the program is the incorporation of fun into all activities. Each lesson plan (12 in total) begins with a fun physical activity and, on the days dealing with nutrition, concludes with the children creating and eating a healthy snack.

And kids love it, Turner says. T.U.F.F. Kids was presented as a pilot to three elementary schools last year. The pilot was so successful that it will be introduced in the district’s 23 schools as the core component of their summer camp program.

Turner says she is flattered to receive the recognition because the T.U.F.F. Kids program is something that she is very passionate about. “It is our vision that through a health led and community driven collaboration, T.U.F.F. Kids will help protect children from the effects of the obesity epidemic and make our community a place where obesity prevention happens.” she explains.

For more information about the TUFF Kids Program, or to learn how to introduce the program in area schools, contact Sandra Turner at (352) 323-5640.



South Lake Hospital Partners With Lake County On Recycling Efforts

CLERMONT — South Lake Hospital recently partnered with the Lake County Department of Environmental Utilities to increase the facility’s recycling program.

The increased recycling capabilities offered by Lake County will allow South Lake Hospital to expand its program to include more campus facilities and the recycling of plastics, aluminum cans and mixed papers in designated departments. Mixed papers include newspapers, magazines, periodicals, brochures, catalogs and phone books. South Lake Hospital anticipates the continued growth of the recycling program as the facility expands and the recycling resources increase.

South Lake Hospital is the first hospital to partner with the County to create a recycling program. Daryl Smith, Department Director says, “Partnerships like this one allow us to focus on the bigger picture. Our goal is to help businesses enhance their commitments to preserve our environment by keeping recyclable materials out of the solid waste disposal stream.”

For years, the County has offered curbside recycling services to its residential customers. Beginning in December, 2007, the County now offers a program to assist businesses in their efforts to recycle.



TGH Women’s Center Opens; A Place Of Comfort And Nurturing

A woman delivering her baby in TGH’s new Women’s Center will stay in a comfortable, nurturing environment that encourages family involvement while also meeting the high tech requirements of modern medicine.

The Women’s Center, which opened today at 8am in the new Bayshore Pavilion’s fourth floor, is dedicated to women of all ages. Everything about the center – from the extra amenities to the spaciousness of its facilities – is designed to make patients and their families feel comfortable and to create an efficient working environment for staff.

The center features 21 labor/delivery/recovery rooms all with waterfront views – compared to the former 11 LDRs.

The LDRs are designed to feel like bedrooms rather than hospital rooms, with soft colors, wood-like floors, wood cabinets where medical equipment and gases can be kept until they’re needed, television sets with DVD-VCR-CD players, and private bathrooms with showers.

Each room has a large window with an expansive view of the Tampa skyline and Tampa Bay, a large built-in sofa for visitors that can be opened into a bed, and ample space for family members to visit.

The Women’s Center will have two separate comfortable family lounges – one for the families of patients in labor and a smaller one for families of C-section patients.

Eight new operating rooms have been built on the unit. Four of these rooms are dedicated to women requiring a Caesaran birth or an Invitro Fertilization procedure. Four of the rooms will be also used for gynecological surgical procedures.



Moffitt Cancer Center’s 15th Annual Magnolia Ball Nets A Record $3.2 Million

TAMPA — In an awesome evening of high auction bids, an incredible match challenge, major pledges, and sponsorships, guests of the 15th annual Magnolia Ball helped to raise $3.2 million on May 3 to benefit patient care, research, education and the Magnolia Lodging Program at Moffitt Cancer Center. These proceeds exceed last year’s net results by $600,000. The Magnolia Ball remains the only black-tie gala in the Tampa Bay area to accomplish this feat.

The Magnolia Ball is known for its spectacular financial success, but guests who attend are constantly reminded of why they give: to help give cancer patients back their quality of life. In an emotional testimony, Moffitt patient Deborah Llewellyn of West Palm Beach thanked supporters for their continual support.

Proceeds from the Ball will enhance Moffitt’s patient care, research and education programs. Also, they will benefit the Magnolia Lodging Program. This program lessens the intense emotional and financial burdens that cancer patients often experience, by offering them and their families a comfortable place to live while they are undergoing lengthy treatments at Moffitt – regardless of their ability to pay.


Moffitt Cancer Center’s Sun Safety Tour Screens Nearly 700 People Offers Free Skin Screenings, Education And Awareness

TAMPA — The Tampa Bay Rays and Moffitt Cancer Center recently wrapped-up Spring Swing-Moffitt’s Sun Safety Tour, a program in search of the early signs of skin cancer, promoting sun safety and skin cancer awareness during its nine-stop tour of spring training venues throughout Florida during the month of March.

The program screened 695 people during its tour, while reaching approximately 60,000 more with the message of sun safety at the various spring training venues on game day.

“We are very pleased that this partnership with Moffitt was so successful in educating our community on the dangers of overexposure to the sun,” said Rays Principal Owner Stuart Sternberg. “As Tampa Bay’s major league baseball team, we embrace our responsibility to support and promote important programs such as this.”

Approximately 15 percent of the 695 people screened during the tour were found to have a suspected skin cancer lesion or mole, and more than 38 percent of those screened were found to have a suspected pre-cancerous lesion or mole.

“Wherever we’ve gone in Florida, we’ve seen a high percentage of people with severe and permanent sun damage, and quite a few with pre-cancerous or cancerous skin lesions,” said Dr. Vernon Sondak, chief of the division of Cutaneous Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center. “It’s important that people are aware of the risk, take appropriate sun precautions, and get your skin checked periodically and anytime there is a concern.”



Gresham, Smith And Partners Announces New Associates

TAMPA — Gresham, Smith and Partners, a leading national architecture, engineering and interior design firm, announces the following new associates in the firm’s Tampa Healthcare Studio:

John H. Ashby, NCARB, LEED AP, has been named an associate. John is a senior architect in the healthcare design group with more than 22 years of experience.

Jennifer E. Sellers, IIDA, has been named an associate. Jennifer has been with GS&P for more than five years and serves as an interior designer in the healthcare design group.

Frank Swaans, AIA, has been named an associate. Frank is a senior healthcare planner and has more than 30 years of experience in health facility planning, design and project management for healthcare projects in the United States, Asia, Europe, South America and the Middle East.


Morton Plant Mease Health Care Receives Nursing Excellence Award

CLEARWATER — Morton Plant Mease Health Care has again received “Magnet” designation, the coveted gold standard for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Magnet designation, first awarded to Morton Plant Mease in 2003 by the ANCC, is the culmination of a comprehensive process that evaluates the patient care, working environment, interdisciplinary relationships and processes of the entire organization. Magnet recognition is granted for a four year period, during which annual reports must be submitted to validate ongoing excellence.

This is the second time Morton Plant Mease has been recognized as a Magnet hospital. The Magnet recertification process included a five-day on-site visit by ANCC appraisers to each of the four Morton Plant Mease hospitals. The Magnet recognition program recognizes excellence in the management, philosophy and practices of nursing services, adherence to national standards for improving the quality of patient care services, leadership of the nurse administrator in supporting professional practice and continued competence of nurses, understanding and respecting the cultural and ethnic diversity of patients, their significant others and health care providers.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the ANCC is the nation’s largest and most prestigious nurse credentialing organization in the world. ANCC certification exams validate nurses’ skills, knowledge, and abilities. Approximately 4 percent of hospitals in the United States have received Magnet recognition.


Moffitt Cancer Center Appoints Robert Rothman to Chair Board of Directors

TAMPA — Robert Rothman has been appointed the next chairman of the Moffitt Cancer Center Board of Directors. Sen. Connie Mack, the immediate past chairman, will remain on the Board as Chair Emeritus and will continue to be actively involved at the cancer center. Sen. Mack will be forming an advisory board for the Donald A. Adam Comprehensive Melanoma Research Center.

Rothman is the chairman of the Board of Florida Bank Group Inc., a multibank holding company headquartered in Tampa. He is also CEO of Black Diamond Group, which was formed in 1999 as a private investment firm. He was chairman and CEO of Consolidated International Group Inc., which owned and operated insurance companies in Europe and North America from 1987 to 1999. Prior to founding the Consolidated Group of companies in 1987, he was executive vice president and chief financial officer of Beneficial Insurance Group. Rothman also worked for Charter Security Life Insurance Company as senior vice president and treasurer and began his career with Ernst & Young in New York in 1977.

Rothman obtained an MBA in finance from The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and a B.A. in economics from Queens College in New York. He is co-owner and board member of the Washington Redskins NFL franchise; board member and chair of the Audit Committee of Cbeyond Corporation in Atlanta; member of the Advisory Council for Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. He previously served as trustee and board chair for the Academy of the Holy Names, Tampa, and director of the University of Tampa.

The role of Moffitt’s Parent Board is to serve as parent of the system and oversee the affairs of the subsidiaries. As such, board members establish the systemwide mission, strategic plan, operational and financial standards and other policies, and otherwise coordinate system affairs through the exercise of reserved powers. The parent corporation conducts research activities of the system.

Tampa General Hospital Plays Significant Role In Clinical Study That Leads To FDA Approval Of Revolutionary Device To Treat Patients With Advanced Heart Failure

As one of only 44 centers in the country to participate in the landmark Thoratec® HeartMate II® Clinical Trial, Tampa General Hospital announced today that the HeartMate II Left Ventricular Assist System (LVAS) has received FDA approval as a bridge-to-transplantation (BTT) treatment option for patients suffering from advanced-stage heart failure. The device is the first continuous flow chronic LVAS to receive FDA approval for BTT in the U.S.

Tampa General was the only trial site in West Central Florida, with Shands Hospital in Gainesville being the only other Florida hospital involved in the trial.

“The FDA approval of the HM II LVAS represents the beginning of a new era in the transplantation of the most sever and deadly form of end-stage heart failure. As participants in this investigation, our center has demonstrated the safety, durability, and effectiveness of the device to save the lives of patients who have no other option for survival. Finally we have a device which promises durability and long term effectiveness in restoring patients to a relatively normal lifestyle while they await transplantation.” said Dr. Cedric Sheffield, Surgical Director, Artificial Heart Center and Thoracic Transplant Programs at Tampa General Hospital.



June 2008